Fresh high-school graduates may go to college with the dream of expanding their horizons, pushing their comfort zone, and delving into the world of higher education.

But with the price of tuition, they also view graduating college as a return on their investment.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, college tuition and fees have increased 63 percent since 2006, so it's no surprise that students may want every penny they paid working towards their future.

A recent study covered by The New York Times revealed a number of interesting data points about the finances of students going to and graduating from America's colleges. Based off millions of anonymous tax records, the groundbreaking study notably shows the income mobility of students after they received their diploma.

Smaller, less well known Texas colleges rate substantially higher in this metric, with Texas A&M International coming in at No. 3 nationally for moving students from the bottom 40 percent, to the top 40 percent economically. SMU, the Texas university with the most students from the 1 percent came in at 1,570.

At SMU, 23 percent of students come from the top 1 percent, while only 3.3 percent come from the bottom 20 percent. In contrast at Texas A&M International in Laredo less than 1 percent of students come from the the income category, while 26 percent come from the bottom 20 percent.

Click through the gallery above to see which Texas colleges pull students out of poverty the most. The schools are ranked by their mobility rate, with their position nationally shown.

Check out the video above to see why older Americans over 60 are drowning in student debt.